It’s opening night for the New York Philharmonic—finally, our fall is in full swing! We’ll be celebrating a different season, though, as music director Alan Gilbert opens the season with Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, a piece of music that once moved audiences to riot and is now the center of a lovely evening at Lincoln Read More
Newlywed Alec Baldwin has gifted the New York Philharmonic a cool $1 million to honor Zarin Mehta, the orchestra’s departing president and executive director. Mr. Mehta, whom musical director Alan Gilbert has credited with supporting cutting edge programming choices like last week’s concerts at the Park Avenue Armory, will leave in August 2012 when his contract expires.
The money is proceeds from Mr. Baldwin’s Capital One Bank commercials, and part of ongoing donations from money he’s earned from those ads to his favorite cultural institutions. This has also involved synergy with Capital One Bank itself making donations, as described in a Wall Street Journal news item last year about the actor’s philanthropic activities. Read More
